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20th Anniversary of the Dawn of Dot-Com
btempleton writes "It was 20 years ago today when I posted to USENET the public launch of ClariNet, my electronic newspaper service delivered over the Internet. By finding a way around the NSFNet acceptable use policy, ClariNet was the first business founded to use the Internet as its platform for business, and the era of the 'dot-com' had begun. For the anniversary I have written a history of the founding of ClariNet and early internet business, which outlines how it all came down. Readers may also enjoy the included anecdote about what I term 'M5' reliability, where the news system was so robust that, like the M5 computer on Star Trek, even those authorized to do so were unable to shut it off; and a story of the earliest large SF eBook effort."
It's all just a series of tubes!
So in other words, we should ultimately blame you for the commercialization and spamming of the internet?
I'm not sure you should have told us that...
The ringing of the division bell has begun... -PF
"It was 20 years ago today..."
Beatle plagiarist! I'm tellin' the RIAA!
Table-ized A.I.
Oh, so *you're* the asshole who started the commercialization, by shady interpretation of a use policy you agreed to, no less.
I bet next you'll tell us that you're also the asshole who sent the first spam.
jk... mostly.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
It was in 1989 that I had my first account, at OCF.berkeley.edu... I posted something to comp.sys.amiga trying to get consensus as to whether or not it was a good idea to spend $300 on a 20 MB external HD for my A500. Those were the days. I didn't realize 20 years had passed.
sigh.
The CB App. What's your 20?
the best way I know to find out you were not first at something is to post on slashdot that you were.
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
This story is all well and interesting, but I imagine it's impossible to prove that you're the first business to make money exclusively over the internet. You might be "one of the first", but to go all the way to the birth of my business represents the birth of dot-com is a bit vain, no?
M5 suffered from the same megalomania and psychosis that its creator, Dr. Richard Daystrom, suffered from. This was the result of Daystrom having used his own 'memory engrams' in M5's programming.
Sig this!
I remember ClariNet. I remember thinking, "why in God's name should I pay for something that I can get for free?"
But it turns out, there are people who will do that, and the rest is history.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Seems to me I got a catalog from JT Toys (now JT's Stockroom at www.stockroom.com) in 1988. Sex is always first.
This guy is.
Sig this!
Damn you. Damn you all. I miss usenet.
I can see the fnords!
"It's a very simple process," she says. "Anyone can do it. We plan to start selling the spray - 'Genie Mist' - in a matter of weeks. One bottle will sell for five dollars and be capable of treating 6,000 seedlings."
Act now! And that's not all! Call within the next 5 minutes, and we'll DOUBLE your order for FREE! That's 12,000 seeds! It's fun for the whole family! Look at grandma! She loves tomatoes! MMM MMM! But wait, there's more! For a limited time only, we'll throw in three flavor sprays to make the tomato actually taste good! Groovy Grape! Outrageous Orange! And Crazy Cap'n Crunchberries! ACT NOW!!!!
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... so these Non-Suitable-For pictures and videos started in the 80ies!
Good to see some things are eternally consistent. Brad is still trying to convince anyone who will listen he's The Most Important Person On The Internet. As it was in the ancient days, so it is today.
I remember ClariNet (having been on the net for a couple of years). I remember the bullshit megalomania. I remember the bright flameout. I remember all the subsequent, desperate attempts to to portray the whole thing as vastly more important than it was.
If *everyone* who comes after you does it better than you do, maybe you really aren't that innovative.
The history, t his blog. Well worthwhile site. I find looking at his panoramic photos very relaxing.
Yeahh I know my post is not relevant.
1989 was also the year I got out of the IBM360 / Bitnet ghetto and got a real unix account with real IP/TCP connections. Clarinet. The was always the server I kept seeing references to, but never found out what was there because they expected me to pay to look.
Not typos, just those bloody bit errors on your acoustically coupled 300 baud modem
I think that claiming a "dot-com" four years prior to the initial release of NCSA Mosaic is absurd. If we're going to contort definitions THAT far, then the first dot-com was probably on Prodigy or Compuserve or maybe even BBS'es in the 1970's.
While I respect and appreciate this post contributor's involvement in the EFF... this particular conversation seems like an awfully self-serving attempt to shoehorn "inventor of the dot-com" onto a resume, a la Al Gore and his infamous "creation of the Internet". Templeton COULD have a claim to this title, but it would feel far more legitimate if he had someone else making the "nomination" as opposed to all the extremely vigorous self-promotion.
There's a reason why Google's search-ranking algorithm works the way it does... because your legitimacy as a public figure depends on how many OTHER people are talking about you, rather than how many words you spew yourself. If you want to move to the top of the heap, you need to use a link farm (i.e. having some other people write stuff like this to Slashdot on your behalf).